Brown Blood Before a Period

Spotting is a natural part of the menstrual cycle for about 10% of all women. Regular light brown spotting can be caused by several things including recent surgeries, vaginal injury and even taking an antibiotic. While this light brown spotting is normal, dark brown blood before a period is not.

Light Brown Spotting

Light brown spotting can be caused by normal changes in the hormone levels of the body throughout the menstrual cycle. This is the normal cause of most spotting although intrauterine or intravaginal injury are also fairly common. Post surgical spotting is also a potential cause for spotting of light brown blood before a period.

A less common, but potentially deadly cause of this premenstrual bleeding is cancer. Uterine, ovarian and cervical cancer are all potential agents for spot bleeding. This is the reason that unusual bleeding should always be brought to the attention of your doctor. Other than cancer, polyps, STDs, cysts, fibroid tumors, endrometriosis, eptopic pregnancy and cervivitis are all potential causes of a light amount of blood in vaginal discharge.

Post menopausal women may also experience brown spotting. Usually, it can be traced back to a high intensity workout that has caused a tear in the vaginal or uterine wall.

All of these instances of spotting should be light brown in color. If there is dark brown blood before a period, it could be a sign of a serious internal problem.

Dark Brown Spotting

Dark brown blood before a period is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The darker the blood is, the longer it has been sitting, which usually indicates that the bleeding is coming from further inside the body than the uterus.

One of the major causes of dark brown spotting is Asherman’s syndrome. This is a condition in which the walls of the uterus become fused together, often covering the cervical opening. This does not allow the monthly menstrual flow to escape. Asherman’s is usually a condition that happens after a dilation and curettage procedure to remove a partial miscarriage, abortion or retained placenta. The brown blood is often the result of this uterine fusion rupturing and releasing a large volume of very old blood.

Other causes of dark brown spotting can include trauma to the ovaries or fallopian tubes, cysts or lesions along the urethra or blood clotting along the uterine walls.

If you experience brown blood before a period every month, there is no need to make any special call to your physician. Simply mention it during your next visit. If there are changes in your spotting, including color or volume changes, this is the time to make a call to the doctor. While it may be a simple hormone change, it could be the sign of something much more serious. Catching diseases like cervical dysplasia before they become cancerous can mean the difference between life and death. You doctor can find these with a typical Pap smear, which is often ordered in cases of changes in spotting.